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Nevada's treasurer a target for ire by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers

Treasurer Dan Schwartz united Republicans and Democrats during a routine committee hearing Tuesday as Assembly members from both parties rebuked him for his management of the office.

Schwartz, a Republican and polarizing figure in Carson City, was grilled by the Ways and Means Committee for more than an hour, accused of acting unilaterally on issues without the Legislature's approval. Schwartz was also criticized during a recent Senate committee hearing.

Schwartz is often a target for Democrats over education savings accounts, currently in limbo after the Nevada Supreme Court ruled the program needed dedicated funding. The program was expected to be the main topic of the committee. Instead, Assembly Minority Leader Paul Anderson, R-Las Vegas, started the hearing with other problems in mind.

Anderson questioned Schwartz’s office hiring a public information officer after being denied budgeting for the position in 2015, and his handling of other programs without going through the Legislature.

“There’s a history of not following directions from this committee, right?” Anderson said. “We had a PIO that was way back in the initial budget that we turned down. We had another PIO request during (interim finance committee). ... We had a significant amount of funds that were moved around, people that were moved around, and it’s well documented in your own testimony.”

“It’s just a history of either being disingenuous or dishonest,” Anderson added. “I’m not sure which it is.”

Anderson wasn’t finished, though, and said Schwartz used money at his own discretion rather than as directed.

“You ignore the legislative branch,” Anderson said. “You ignore our abilities and our constitutional obligations to do our job, and that’s why we’re here. And I think oftentimes you forget that you’re a compliance officer in the executive branch, and that’s something that has probably frustrated me over the last couple of years as we’ve tried to do our best, tried to give you the tools to do your best and you simply ignore any of those requests or advices we’ve gotten through here.”

Schwartz replied that he was not disrespecting the Legislature, but operating under the separation of powers. He said he was following guidelines from the Legislature and the governor’s office.

“I am not a compliance officer,” he said. “I believe you were elected by what, 11,000-12,000 citizens of Nevada? I was elected by 250,000 of them.”

Schwartz then tried taking a jab at state Sen. Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno, who was not at the meeting.

“I saw you and our good friend Sen. Kieckhefer talking before the meeting. Sen. Kieckhefer, for some reason, has a bee in his bonnet about the PIO,” Schwartz said before Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton, a Las Vegas Democrat and chairwoman of the committee, cut him off.

“Mr. Treasurer, please do not bring in other legislators into this conversation. Please do not call out people,” she said. “That is inappropriate.”

Kieckhefer, who grilled Schwartz on the PIO during an earlier Senate committee hearing, replied on Twitter.

“I would strongly suggest in this house, you adjust your tone,” Frierson said. “This is the people’s house. This is the Legislature. This is not the executive over here. We get a budget that we have to work and we have to ask questions to make decisions. But we don’t tolerate members disrespecting people that come before this body and we certainly shouldn’t respect people that come before this body disrespecting members.”

Schwartz said he was just responding to what he felt was an attack from Anderson. But Frierson didn’t relent, questioning Schwartz on the PIO position.

“This is the beginning, in my notes, of what seems to be a theme of the Legislature having been asked for something, the Legislature saying no, then your office doing it anyway, then coming back two years later to ask the Legislature to pay for what you decided to do even though the Legislature said no,” he said.

Schwartz said that was not the case, and the PIO position was needed to help with information about education savings accounts.

Grant Hewitt, Schwartz’s chief of staff, tried to explain the process for how the PIO position came to be. The treasurer’s office took unused salary funds to pay for the spot, which they felt was a necessity given the late passage of education savings accounts at the close of the 2015 session. They tried taking it to the interim finance committee, but were not allowed to by rules, he said. The governor's office then said it wasn’t required because of the savings used to pay for the position, Hewitt said.

“It was a rules process,” Hewitt said. “It wasn’t a process to circumvent the rules, sir. In fact, I would much rather preferred not be answering this line of questioning right now and much rather have had the debate during IFC.”

Frierson wasn’t sold.

“It feels like my son went to mom, mom said no, then my son went to dad and dad said, ‘You don’t need to go back to your mom,’” he said.

Buy Photo

The Nevada Assemble applauds as teary-eyed Assembleyman Jason Frierson gets up to take the podium as Speaker of the Nevada Assembly as the Nevada Legislature's 2017 session convenes on Monday Feb. 6, 2017 in Carson City. Frierson is the first-ever African American Assembly speaker of the Nevada legislation.(Photo: Andy Barron/RGJ)

Hewitt said that was inaccurate and they wanted to have the discussion.

Several other members questioned Schwartz's actions as well. The hearing went over time and will be continued later.